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Rubbing It In: History’s Greatest Flexes and Ownages

Khalid Elhassan June 3, 2025 17 min

20. The Roman Army Forced to Pass Beneath the Yoke

Ownage - Romans forced to pass under the yoke, by Tancredi Scarpelli — Romans forced to pass under the yoke, by Tancredi Scarpelli. Pinterest

One of the most famous instances of this ritual occurred after the disastrous Roman defeat at the Battle of the Caudine Forks in 321 BC, during the Second Samnite War. Roman consuls whose army was trapped by the Samnites in a mountain pass agreed to surrender. The victorious Samnites, led by Gaius Pontius, humiliated the entire Roman army by forcing it to pass under the yoke. The Samnites had spared their defeated enemies’ lives, but the Romans considered this event deeply shameful, and it had long-lasting repercussions in Roman military culture and memory.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.